CheesyD's School for Kids Who Can't Shoot Good....

So you’d just get all wet, muddy and cold to give up all opportunity to win, phoning it in.

Not what I’m there to do.

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"not sure" is the key phrase in my comment.....I'd end up doing exactly as you did, but would be bitching about the conditions while I am cleaning the mags. No budget for stone at your local range! I shoot at one where it's all yellow sand, when it gets really wet it might be just as bad as that mud looks. Yeah I know bitching is useless right?

Finally got a new range membership locked down, allowing the possibility to make it out for some practice. It’s been approximately 7 months since Stoeger hurt my feeling and I’ve done no live fire to fix it.

Partials @ 20 yards – Pretty much a shit show. I knew I had trigger control issues going in and this was a pretty difficult drill to kick off. Short version, I was pulling the trigger with the entire hand and my grip was no bueno. Focused in on the grip, pulling the trigger straight back, and a true sight focus made the drill good but not a true success.

- Take away:o Figure out the grips on the gun, pick one and stick with it. Probably going back to Henning full checker on both guns.o Use proper sight focus in dryfire now that I know what is required on a 20yrd partial

20 yards was actually easier, I was able to get the gun up, align the sights & properly pull the DA trigger well within 1.5s. 80/20 Alpha Charlie with the occasional Delta.

15 yards was surprisingly difficult. It wasn’t making the time but getting the gun up and comfortable with the sight picture on the DA first shot. Follow up was not an issue, it was on the draw where I felt rushed. 75/25 Alpha Charlie, lower rate was pushing low/left on the DA shot.

7 yards was fast! Running 1.1s with reckless abandon. Had to find the right pace on the draw, ~.95 for me, to get the gun up/out of the holster leveled at the target to begin pulling the first shot. Also imperative to build the grip IMMEDIATELY upon clearing holster. Figured out the timing / sight requirements to land on 1.2 or faster with regularity. 85/15 Alpha Charlie, rushed need to up the points.

- Take away:o Really started to “feel” more. Felt the gun track thru the entire cycle. Felt the gun being pushed on shots. Felt the “hitch” in DA as the disco slipped off the trigger bar. It was really interesting to just know what happened, when to fire a make-up, where (generally) the shot landed.

Four Aces – This was fun! Consistently hit 2.65 with 3a/1c at 7 yards. Personal best of 2.48 with 4a. Draw on average was .92 and reload 1.25. I’d really like to reduce both of those but the reloads are mainly the juicy bits. I’ve been having an issue with grabbing the entire Ghost mag pouch, really fucking annoying. Time to ramp it up in dryfire again.

- Take away:o Just let it happen if you are going for consistency. Don’t push or rush or try.

I've been reading Peak - Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, and have begun to implement Deliberate Practice techniques in my dryfire. Instead of pushing to go faster, I'm hitting par times for nearly every drill in the books from Stoeger and Anderson, it is now a focus on specific technique.

For examples, isolated dry fire for 12 minutes on trigger pull (aka Trigger Control at Speed). Focusing on how it feels to pull the trigger straight back - hard - into the frame, without moving the front site, and isolating the trigger finger. This was done in both double action and single action. Many little things to pay focus but it really worked well.

Overall spent 30 minutes on deliberate dry fire with a focus on grip & trigger control. Interestingly enough I noticed many more small key points with my vision, how my grip felt, tension in my strong hand & trigger finger etc. I was much, much more engaged in paying attention to my dry fire.

Spent some time on the range last night with focus still on trigger control and accuracy at speed. Made some good progress which makes me happy, continued to notice and diagnose issues on the fly. Specifically, why shots were pushing to the right at 20 yards. Turns out with my change in grip, the support hand thumb is pushing the frame. Corrected that & the shots came back to center.

Four Aces at 20 yards is a pretty fun drill, it highlights a lot of your shoot abilities or weaknesses. I’m happy to say that with a focus on match pace shooting, I had no misses while maintaining an average run time of 3.97. Not the 3.5 book goal, but its proof my hard work is paying off.

Another interesting note, looking at my practice log book, I have not live fire practiced since December of 2017, nearly 6 months. That’s not by choice, just got on a with a new range. So far the deliberate practice with a focus on grip & trigger control is paying off.

Last night was an interesting dryfire session with a focus solely on reloads, static and moving. I’ve blown a few positions and lost some time over the last few matches due to incomplete or bobbled reloads.

Consistently hit 1.1 with 1.0 about 50% of the time. This included stepping into a shooting box from every direction.

This session was focused on clean and repeatable runs.

It has been almost an epiphany over the last few weeks in live and dryfire. I’m starting to notice small things, self diagnosing and correcting errors.